Mobile device manufacturers, mobile device service providers, and application developers use a number of techniques to detect locations of mobile devices. For example, some techniques determine a cell of a wireless network to which a mobile device is connected and report location based on the connected cell. Since a base station for each cell is in a fixed location, the cell identity can be translated into a location for a mobile user based on the location of the base station. Some techniques use wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.) to locate devices. For example, locations of fixed Wi-Fi access points can be used to determine locations of mobile devices associated with the Wi-Fi access points.
The figures are not to scale. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.